Multi-ply fabric construction



Nov. 25, 1958 0. vs. LAWTON MULTI-PLY FABRICHC'ONSTRUCTION 'Filed June 15, 11955 N m R m 3%, v NR w a 5/ Y B United States Patent '0 MULTI-PLY FABRIC CONSTRUCTION Oscar S. Lawton, New Bedford, Mass, assignor to Phillips-Jones Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 15, 1955, "Serial No. 515,737

1 Claim. (Cl. 139-3855} This invention relates to fabrics, and especially to those particularly adapted for the manufacture of shirt collars, cuffs and other garment parts, and has reference to a fabric in which wrinkling, curling up of the collar or other article, will be materially resisted, to the end that the article of wearing apparel composed of the improved fabric shall remain neat and smooth in appearance.

It is an object of the invention to provide a fabric in which the greater portion or larger area of the body of the collar or other article shall be composed of double warps, that is, front and back warp threads connected by a unique arrangement of binder threads in engagement with front and rear weft threads, and in which gut warps are employed. It is an object of the invention to provide a fold line area in the fabric, or actually in the collar fabricated therefrom, which area shall be made flexible and capable of easy folding by the elimination within such area of the back warp threads and gut warps.

It is still another object of the invention to provide in a fabric as above described, the two areas as above mentioned, and in which there shall be no perceptible junction line between the same so that the fabric for its entire area, and including the so-called body and the fold line areas, shall be of uniform appearance, and particularly on the outer face thereof.

It is still another object of this invention to provide in a fabric of the character described, a fold line area of extreme flexibility; in which cramping of the threads and resultant often-present roughness after laundering of the collar will not occur.

With these and other objects to be hereinafter set forth in view, I have devised the arrangement of parts to be described and more particularly pointed out in the claim appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein an illustrative embodiment of the invention is disclosed,

Fig. 1 is a face view of a blank from which a collar is made from the fabric of this invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view, taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, and with the threads of the fabric loosely arranged or separated in a manner to disclose the course of the same;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, the view being taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, with the threads of the fabric disposed loosely as stated with respect to Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View, taken substantially on the line 44 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, with the threads of the fabric widely separated and arranged loosely as above stated, and

Fig. 5 is a similar sectional view, taken substantially on the line 55 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In Fig. 1 is disclosed a collar, or a blank 1 from which a collar is adapted to be fabricated, the fabric constituting the collar being, for the greater area through the collar,

of multi-ply construction, namely, provided with two sets of warp and weft threads connected by binder threads, and in said area of the collar including gut warps also. The area indicated at 5 in the collar blank 1, and appearing above the dot-and-dash line indicated at 6 and between said line and the edge 6a, constitutes the fold line area, within which area 5 the collar has a predisposition to fold, and within this area the Weave of the fabric is substantially that shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

The weave constituting the fold line area 5 is disclosed in Figs. 2 and 4 wherein the face or front warp threads are indicated at 7, these threads being shown stippled for ready identification. The front weft threads in engagement with the face warps 7 are indicated at 8. The rear weft threads are shown at 9, and the binder threads which undulatingly and alternately extend between the front weft threads 8 and the rear weft threads 9 are indicated at 10. It is to be noted that within this area 5 of the collar there are no rear warp threads, and this area is therefore of extreme flexibility enabling the collar to possess a predisposition to fold on a longitudinal line located within said area 5.

The normal weave area, or that which constitutes the major part of the body of the collar and extends throughout the entire collar with the exception of the fold line area 5, is that designated at 11 in Fig. 1 and the weave of this area of the collar is that shown in Figs. 3 and 4. It will be therein seen that such weave includes the face warp threads 7 also stippled for easy identification, engaging the face weft threads 8 in the manner described with respect to the weave of the fold line area of Fig. 2. in this portion 11 of the collar, rear warp threads 12 are incorporated, and the same engage with the rear weft threads 9 similar to the engagement of the front warp threads with the front weft threads 8. In this portion of the collar, the binder threads 10 are incorporated and the same undulatingly and alternately extend between the face wefts 8 and rear wefts 9 as clearly seen in Fig. 3.

It will be noted that the binder threads 10 are alternated with respect to their engagement with the face and rear weft threads. For example, the binder thread indicated at 10a has a bight 13 engaging over the front weft thread 8a from whence the binder thread 10a extends to form a bight 16 around rear weft thread 17 to then pass to front weft thread 18 and repeat its course back and forth from front to rear weft threads. The arrangement of the binder threads in the staggered relationship shown in the drawing, and which arrangement appears in both the body weave, or that in the collar area 11, as well as in the fold line area 5, results in a crisscross arrangement of parts of the several binder threads between the plies of the fabric and which draws the two plies of the fabric together while allowing flexibility, and resisting the tendency of the fabric to wrinkle or fold and particularly on longitudinal lines.

In the weave incorporated in the area 11, it will be noted that gut warps 18 are incorporated, and these may be varied in number according to the density of the fabric desired. The gut warps are omitted from the weave in the fold line area 5 and rear warps are also omitted from this area as was heretofore explained.

By the use of the weaves above described, a collar is produced which will be of uniform external appearance. That is to say, the entire external face of the collar will be of uniform appearance, since in both the area 11 and in the fold line area 5 the face warps and front weft are uniform in number. Also, by the construction described, a curling tendency of the ends of the collar is retarded and various other advantages are attained as will be apparent to those skilled in this art.

Having described a single embodiment of the inven- ,tion, it is obvious that the saine is not to be restricted thereto, but is broad enough to cover all structures com-' ing within the scope of the annexed claim.

What I claim is V A niulti-ply fabric comprising a body area and a foldliue area', "the body "area having a front ply composed of face warps and f-ace'wefts, a back ply composed of rear warps and rear wefts, the entire fabric area having binders connecting the face and back plies, the binders being alternately engaged with the front and rear wefts to present sections criss-crossing one another in a regular uniform pattern between the plies when viewed across the length of the fabric, each of the binders extending around the spaced-apart wefts in each of said plies, which binderengaging wefts in each of said plies are so spacedapart that a plurality of non-engaged wefts in each ply are located between those engaged by each binder, the foldline area having the face warps and face'wefts and having rear wefts only, with the binders extending alternately between the front wefts and the rear wefts, the rear warps being wholly omitted from the weave in the foldline area, the front face of the fabric being uniform in appearance in both the body area and the fold-line area, and each of the said individual binders also being spaced an equal distance apart as defined by predetermined numbers of face warps.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,474,079 Horton Nov. 13, 1923 2,393,829 Skinkle et al. Jan. 29, 1946 2,658,535 Lawton Nov. 10, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 822,803 France Sept. 27, 1937 

